What is your 90-Day Business Plan?

The third quarter of 2015 is here! Last week I walked our team of Mortgage Advisors through our unique Aspire 90-day Game Plan™. A few of them who have joined us recently had never been through this powerful business planning process, and it is always rewarding to see the immediate shift in their thinking as I show them an entirely new way to simplify their business planning and increase productivity.

If you do not have a desire to be more productive in your business, accomplish more in less time, and learn a new skill to combat the ever-increasing complexity that comes with your business, then I will save you some time…don’t read the rest of this. On the other hand, if you’re sick and tired of feeling scattered and showing up to work in a reactive mindset day after day, then read on and email me to say “thank you”!

What is the 90-Day Business Plan? In a nutshell, it is a one-page plan focused on the number one thing that, if accomplished, will have the greatest impact on your business, money, or life.

Breaking down your year into four “chunks”, and narrowing your focus to one thing each quarter provides a sense of clarity and focus that few sales professionals and business owners ever get to enjoy. And don’t get me wrong – you will still have 99 other things going on in the same quarter. The difference is they will only happen after you have focused the critical time on your top priority. This creates a transformational shift in your mindset.

One Priority

The first step is to write down the top four or five biggest things you’d really like to get done this quarter.   Once you have your list, you must choose one. Yep, only one. But after doing this dozens of times and helping many others learn this process, I can tell you that one priority typically trumps the others. Give it some thought. Is there one priority on your list that if done this quarter, would make the others on your list no longer necessary, or perhaps easier?

Some examples of top priorities I often see for my mortgage advisors are: Increasing Realtor Partnerships; Adding Financial Planning Partnerships; Creating a Post-Close Marketing Campaign; Adding a Team Member; Providing Educational Workshops for Homeowners; Starting a Mastermind Group; and so on.

Two Ideal Results (Metrics)

How will you measure your success around focusing on your top priority? If you are an experienced goal setter, you understand that your goals much include a number or a way to track whether you succeed or fail. This works the same way, but the magic is you must think of two numbers and only two numbers that you will measure your success or failure by.

Examples might look like this: Three New Realtor Partnerships Established; Two New Financial Planning Partners; 50 New Referrals; 24 Closed Loans; Three First Time Homebuyer Workshops Completed; and so on.

Two Key Activities

This is where the rubber meets the road. You’ve now established what your main focus on the quarter will be (Priority) and if successful, what the results will look like (Ideal Results/Metrics). Now you must determine what it will take to make this happen. What are the two critical activities that you must do daily or weekly, to ensure these results? These activities need to be able to go into your calendar and be time-blocked.

Examples:

If your top priority is “New Realtor Partnerships”, and your two ideal results are “three new Realtor® partners” and “10 new referrals from those three new partners”, then your two key activities might include: 10 proactive calls per day to prospective partners, five face-to-face meetings per week, one email per week to your real estate group with a market update, etc. etc.

Remember, while we cannot necessarily control the results, we CAN control our own activities. So the activities must get time-blocked in your calendar. This means blocking out the time each day you will be making those ten proactive phone calls, or what day and time the email will go out. Stick to it, and have others around you hold you accountable.

What if you don’t do this?

Well, speaking from my own experience and observations of loan officers and sales professionals over the years , you will continue attempting to focus on too many projects and priorities at a time, resulting in very few (if any) getting done. In the long run, this zaps your energy and leads to burnout.

What if you DO adopt this new approach?

Imagine completing four crucial priorities in your business over the course of one year! Each quarter, by definition, you focused on and accomplished the one thing that would have the greatest impact on your business, money, or life. You will have accomplished far more than your competition and your business will grow while you experience greater simplicity, both at work and at home. The math is simple – four good quarters equals a great year!